Artist and net neutrality activist Rachita Taneja’s ‘Sanitary Panels’ is a well-known name among the bunch of progressive Indian digital artists who’ve come up in the last few years. Hard-hitting political commentary through easily drawn and understandable stick figures is Taneja’s widely recognised style. Ever since ‘Sanitary Panels’ was set up in 2014, her fearless art has consistently questioned the powers that be and this has often brought her in the cross hairs of the Indian state, amid increasing intolerance towards dissent.
In the aftermath of the release of journalist and Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami last month, Taneja took to social media to express her disillusionment with the Supreme Court’s indifference towards other journalists and activists who have been wrongly imprisoned by the state. On November 11th and 12th, she posted two illustrations which pointed towards the bias, and how the SC favoured the well being of some over others’. While in one, Goswami is portrayed as being looked over and protected by the ruling party and the court, the second one points fingers at the blatant “saffronisation” of the institution.
Even though shared and celebrated by many, a request was soon placed against the illustrations before the SC in order to initiate “contempt of court” proceedings against Taneja. Requested by law student Aditya Kashyap, it was accepted by Attorney General KK Venugopal yesterday. Venugopal, who reportedly sees the illustrations as an “audacious assault and insult to the institution”, said, “I am satisfied that each of the tweets with cartoons attached is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, hence I grant my consent”. It’s worth noting that this action comes after similar proceedings were initiated against popular comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets criticising the court — raising questions regarding the institution’s priorities. By now, many artists come out in solidarity with Taneja and Sanitary Panels — most of them expressing it through similar stick figures.
The first two below are the comics that were taken to court, and the rest are some other powerful commentary by her:
